My Turn: Abortion: A Mad and Bloody River Of Lost Life

Rama Krishna Rao, M.D.

As a medical professional for the past thirty years, I have served patients of varying religions in India, England, Scotland, Wales and the USA, while also working with colleagues who are Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Buddhist, theist or atheist. I do not perform abortions because my conscience has not approved it so far. I do not dislike abortionists nor do I have less respect or love for the individual who undergoes an abortion.

Many physicians (of any religion) perform abortions not because they like to uphold the flag of abortionists, but because this fairly easy procedure has not afflicted their hearts. The time, space, expertise and the total mental commitment offered to the patient is far less, while payment is much, much more. To collect a $700 delivery fee from a Medicaid patient for a normal delivery or C-section, a doctor has to provide entire pregnancy care; await any midnight calls; go through the stress of patient and fetal distress; bill the company and collect later. But an abortion fetches an easy $250. Being a 30-40 minute office procedure, a comfortable dozen abortions can be performed in a 9-5 working day. These physicians of "any religion" think that their religion has not pointed them in any particular direction in this matter.

The root cause of any problem, pain or continuous agony of this procedure lies in its own origin: "the unwanted baby" and very much "wanted sex." Present society worldwide is geared toward too much sensual stimulation of school children, youths and adults through parties, books, magazines, advertisements, alcohol, drugs, leaving them in total ignorance of their own involvements and actions, unaware that "fun" is for a fraction of time, but the problem of pregnancy is forever. In this mental state, none of the Ten Commandments of the powerful God, or the direct preaching of the Bhagavad Gita by Lord Krishna or the holy words of Mohammed will ever reach mothers of "unwanted" babies or the hearts of the couples of the "unwanted baby girls" in certain parts of the blind world!

My advice to a young doctor faced with the decision of performing abortions or not, is very simple: go along with you own true conscience. This procedure is different from an appendectomy, cholecysectomy, hysterectomy or craniotomy.

How can any religion help to shrink the depth, width and the length of this mad and bloody Amazon River washing away the lives of millions of unborn, innocent and tender lives? This is a major mind-boggling problem for all those kind-hearted universal souls. Every religion must become more approachable, understandable, practical and acceptable to ordinary, common people. The values of the basic family and human relationships need to be molded into the hearts. The very basic moral, ethical, cultured and civil thought process must be enkindled in the very basic fibre. Parliamentarians, educators, businessmen, entertainers and parents must take a step back, look at the entire awful problem of abortions and, at the outset at least, help by not supporting and then continue to eradicate the problem by selfless action and with sound support to the vulnerable fraction of society.

Obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Rama Krishna Rao of San Antonio, Texas is a founder and ex-chairman of the Hindu Temple of San Antonio and lecturer on Hinduism.